Prince Harry and Meghan visited the Specialty Hospital in Amman, Jordan, today where they met 14-year-old Maria, a burns survivor from Gaza
The Duchess of Sussex held the hand of a burns victim from Gaza as she and Prince Harry began a surprise trip to Jordan. The Sussexes have travelled to the Middle Eastern country to learn more about the efforts to support both Syrians and Palestinians who have sought sanctuary there following conflict over the several decades.
On the first of their two-day tour today, Harry and Meghan visited the Specialty Hospital in Amman where they talked to doctors looking after medical evacuees. There they met 14-year-old Maria from Gaza, who had sustained severe burns on her right leg and foot, with Meghan smiling as she offered her a comforting hand.
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Maria was left traumatised and suffering with PTSD after an explosion killed six members of her family, including her parents, with only a brother surviving. She was left with severe burns to her legs which resulted in the toes on her right foot being amputated and was at hospital on Wednesday to have her dressings replaced under anaesthetic.
Meghan crouched down to talk to the teenager and Harry looked pained when her blanket was removed to show them, with her permission, the dressings and her foot.
The couple also met Jaber, 17, whose legs were held in place by a metal frame: “I’m so glad you’re getting the treatment that you need”, as he was assessed at the private Specialty Hospital in Amman.
Dr Hamzeh Odeh, the emergency department manager at Specialty Hospital, said after the visit: “This is what you expect from war, they’re war injuries. “But some of the injuries are not directly related to the war, it’s because of the lack of doctors, lack of medication.”
Earlier, the couple had joined Syrian children at a refugee camp, where Meghan claimed bragging rights in football training when she scored a penalty and her husband’s shot was saved.
Meghan looked triumphant and threw her hands in the air after her right-footed strike beat a girl in goal when the couple visited the sprawling camp Za’atari Refugee Camp, where tens of thousands of displaced Syrians live in semi-permanent homes.
The Sussexes also toured a youth centre run by the social development organisation Questscope, which provides a number of activities from art and photography classes to music and sport, to engage the youngsters and help alleviate any mental health issues.
The pair also visited a number of classrooms, watching teenage girls playing traditional Arabic instruments and in another space, more musicians performed with violins and guitars.
Conversations were conducted through an interpreter but when Harry asked the violinists if made friends through the lessons, 15-year-old Siham, a refugee who arrived in the country aged two, said “yes we’re friends” in perfect English and impressed the Sussexes by saying she was a black belt in the martial art taekwondo.
It came after Harry and Meghan had joined a roundtable discussion hosted by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Philip Hall, British Ambassador to Jordan, thanked the Sussexes for travelling to the Middle East saying: “I would simply say thank you very much indeed for coming. Your visit, your support, your appreciation of the efforts that the United Nations, including of course, the World Health Organisation, the government of Jordan and others, are making here is enormously appreciated. So thank you for coming.”
The couple, who stepped down as working royals in 2020, travelled to Jordan at the invitation of the WHO’s director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. It is understood that the couple informed Buckingham Palace about the visit as a matter of courtesy but a source stressed the trip was not being undertaken on behalf of the UK Government, nor does it reflect the couple’s political views.
Jordan has received wave after wave of refugees beginning with Palestinians more than 80 years ago, who now number around 2.5 million, and Syrians who fled conflict in their country until recently ruled by President Bashar al-Assad.
The latest wave of displaced people flowed into the country following the Israeli government’s Gaza war against Hamas, which followed Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians during the October 7 attacks.
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